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What You Really Need to Know About the Competition

Guest post by: Rebel Brown

Article Overview: When it comes right down to it, the only that really matters is what our buyers think. Focused customer assessment is the best way to learn the truth about ourselves, our competitors and what we really need to enhance our future success.

What You Really Need to Know About the Competition



If a customer perceives a competitor to be superior - they are. All the time and effort our experts spend on competitive analysis doesn't give us market truth. Reality comes from what our audiences believe.

What you learn from your markets, about yourselves and your competitors is what matters. Focus on customer perspective if you want to grow. But what do we need to know about our competition to be successful? And how do we find the right information - and then apply it in the best ways possible?

You ask the right questions of the right people. Don't make things more complex by diving into all the trivia, examining every minute detail about your competition. Focus your analysis on two key aspects, and leave the rest of the details behind.

1. Identify their Achilles Heel. Everyone has an underbelly - including your competition. The trick is to choose the weakness that maps to your specific market focus. Picking five competitive ‘silver bullets' that aren't important to your buyers doesn't do you much good. Picking the right point of focus can win the game. Sometimes you need one focus per market, sometimes there's one weakness that you can play across all your audiences. But be sure to focus - attacking multiple potential weaknesses to find one that sticks is not a good strategy. Explore beyond product offerings. Underbellies show up in the most unexpected places; areas of expertise, quality of support, their ‘caring' factor when the stuff hits the fan, that slow delivery that gets slower and slower. You'll find out about all these Achilles Heels - as you build trust with your audience.

2. Identify their sweet spot. Every competitor has one market that they own. One of the strongest competitive strategies is to graciously give them that market space - especially if it's a complicated market that will keep them busy. If they can win hands down, don't try to beat them. Focus on other markets where you can win. Be gracious as you pigeon hole them into that industry segment or customer problem. You can claim a very different and larger segment as your own. If there isn't enough market to give them their space while retaining a sizable opportunity for yourself - then you might want to rethink your choice of markets. A limited market isn't usually the best growth opportunity - unless it's a stepping stone to a much larger segment.

When it comes right down to it, the only that really matters is what our buyers think. Focused customer assessment is the best way to learn the truth about ourselves, our competitors and what we really need to enhance our future success.

Forget the " me too" followers approach. Change your view, follow your customers and lead your market!



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Article Tags: business growth strategy, competitive analysis, competitive success, how to beat the competition, market leadership



Related Forum Posts
Re: Congratultations to GT! - Hi GT, Competition is great and i know I wouldn't be here without it, but it is not the main reason for posting and participating. But I admit, it is the trigger I need to get some work done. If there is none, i create one for myself and try to make it. First prize is ice cream.
Re: Is Google Search getting better or worse? - Competition and that too stiff is something I have always loved and being a true web user I hate spammers the same way and so I am very happy with the recent changes that Google has made and so I must say that it is getting better. I am happy because now we could be able to get and read fresh and unique content instead of the repetitive ones. Now the value of actual SEO will be seen as results now will be completely depend on the hard work SEO and strategies an internet marketing company will apply to get on top of search giant's ranking. surfing the web daily as addiction I have seen most of the webmasters asking several questions related to real time search and how they should commence now to get better and faster results, found lots of useful information and learned new strategies too.
Re: What Keyword research methods do you use? - Hi GT, Good post, I also typically use the Google Adwords keyword tool for no other reason than I have always used it. If other members have a better one they can recommend then please join the post. I have also found the Stealth Keyword Competition Analyzer extremely useful for selecting the most effective keywords to use. Back to Google, if they are main website keywords then I am looking for fairly large monthly global ‘exact’ searches but if it is just for extra weekly content then I am quite happy to run an article optimised with a long tail keyword phrase that may only have a monthly search of 200-300 because I know I have a better chance of ranking highly for that keyword phrase. regards, Mal.
Re: Help needed! - [quote="jeema":1rpkpkod]Hi, I’m a newly single mother who stays at home looking after my son. I have been writing for a long-long time but never thought to do something serious with it. I would like to try freelance copywriting, but don't know the first thing about it. How can I get started? Can anyone help me? I love writing and I could really-really use the extra cash- raising a young child alone really hits the wallet pocket. I appreciate any replies, and hope that I may be able to help in return sometime soon. Thank you very much.[/quote:1rpkpkod] Hi, Jeema It's easier than ever for writers (non-fiction writers, anyway!) to get work these days, via such sites as elance.com (they are who I do work for.) There are plenty of freelance sites on the web, where prospective customers post what they need, and prospective workers "bid" on the jobs, and then the customer chooses which writer he wants to do the work. There's lots of competition, but the wheat soon separates from the chaff and if you can write well, you can usually find steady employment. Competition drives down the price that you're able to charge, however, unless you have niche expertise such as technical or legal writing. PM me for some free advice, if you'd like!


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